After dominating the CDMA gateway space for years, Starent finally breaks in big with the GSM community with Vodafone win

LAS VEGAS--Global operator Vodafone has selected Starent Networks' core network to provide core network data and signaling nodes in Vodafone Germany’s network, marking Starent’s transformation from a vendor dealing solely with the CDMA core to a global equipment maker in the much larger GSM/UMTS world.

Vodafone is deploying Starent’s Gateway GPRS Serving Node (GGSN) and Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) in the German network, but it is also making Starent a preferred vendor for its global network operations, meaning it is one of few companies that can bid on core network contracts throughout Vodafone’s 252.3 million-subscriber strong footprint. Such a deal with the world’s largest operator could catapult tiny Starent—which recorded only $142 million in revenues last year—into a highly competitive ranks of global vendor, albeit in a niche part of the network.

At CTIA Wireless, Starent vice president of marketing J. Andrew Capener said that GGSN and SGSN sales account for roughly 0.5% to 2% of total network infrastructure spend, which is traditionally dominated by the radio access network outlay. But that percentage is starting to grow as data traffic is starting to grow on wireless networks. As High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) is rolled out, carriers require more robust core data infrastructure to handle growing capacity and throughput. That demand, Capener said, has been directly responsible for Starent achieving a foothold in the space.

“In general, we’ve seen that the carriers are using the GGSNs they had in place for GPRS for their new HSPA networks,” Capener said. Those GGSN solutions in many cases were repurposed IP routers that weren’t optimized for the demands of a wireless network, he added. So as the data onslaught began operators started looking at Starent’s purpose-built platform, weighing it alongside the Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks and Cisco System’s products, Capener said. “We have always been a high-performance company—a technology leader in this space,” he said.

Starent originally made its mark in the CDMA world building that technology’s equivalent of the GGSN, the Packet Data Serving Node. It managed to become dominant player in that niche of the network going head to head with Cisco for contracts as well as signing OEM deals with the likes of Samsung and Nortel. The GSM world was closed to it though because GSM operators typically awarded their network contracts as all-in-one bundles, spanning core to radio. As data usage expanded, though, GSM operators started splitting their network contracts, asking for separate bidders for the core and RAN.

In 2006, Starent built its first GGSN platform, though, and has been quietly selling it to GSM operators around the world. Its first contract was with SK Telecom, which used a hybridized version of the Starent PDSN already installed in the CDMA network to power its new UMTS networks. The Vodafone deal, however, didn’t emerge until Starent went public in 2007. Becoming a public traded company, in part, gave operators the confidence to invest in Starent gear, Capener said.